Glass
by YinYangSisters
Summary: AxC, post SEED; she is not blind to her imperfection. If anything, it's all she sees.


Haven't written a GS/GSD fic in a while...but woot woot for word vomit and mixing things up.

- Yin

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN GUNDAM SEED/GUNDAM SEED DESTINY

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**Glass**

She wasn't stupid. Was she?

She knew that Lacus was perfect, way too perfect, beyond this world kind of perfect; but she didn't actually register how perfect she was until she had taken a good look at herself first. She actually had been able to confront Lacus's perfection, until she realized how little she possessed herself.

Cagalli started with her skin; scars. Scars everywhere. Her neck, shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, hips, legs, feet, thighs, everywhere. Charred skin that were once gashes and scrapes that occurred through lack of luck and the inability to just sit and do nothing.

She grinds her teeth together, amber eyes flickering from analyzation. Her blonde hair is choppy and short; she tried growing it long, she really did, but it just wasn't her. It just wasn't who she was, and like most feminine things, it didn't suit her.

She squinted in the mirror at herself, blinking as she tried to figure it out; she didn't have that...presence about her. She didn't have that grace and profound elegance and patience that Lacus had mastered long before adolescence. She didn't have the undying sense of leadership and gentleness, and Cagalli started to wonder what she did have.

She blinks, turning away from the mirror, not finding an answer to her own question.

.

.

.

.

Cagalli watched her, disheartened with every move she made; Lacus was pristine, newly made glass. She was so...faultless, as she conversed and smiled and genuinely _cared_ about everyone in this room, her beauty and prominence so hereditary and blissful to be around.

Cagalli licks her lips; she knows that she herself is not a pleasure to be around at all. She didn't even know how many times she had yelled at Athrun for something that didn't even matter that much, or scolded Kira for things that he was perfectly capable of doing.

She is confused, as she looks at her hands, at herself.

She does not have any of it; not the grace, not the ability to stay collected, not the grace or beauty.

And yet, she is to be the leader of an entire nation by the time they arrive at Earth? The nation her father left behind for her, the nation that she does deserve, the nation that shouldn't belong to her, the nation she loves too much to let down-

Suddenly, she is no longer hungry, and excuses herself.

Athrun's eyes follow her out of the room, and he can't figure her out.

.

.

.

.

She is angry; she is angry at herself.

She is angry for what she is not, for who she will never be, for all of her mistakes and regrets and her inability to be what her country needs, for her inability to anything but shattered, broken, useless glass.

Cagalli is angry as she tosses and turns in Athrun's bed, forcing him to awaken eventually. He is groggy and groans as he does so, his misty forest green eyes peering at her, concerned and worried and a little afraid.

"Cagalli?" he asks, and his voice makes her stomach churn. "Are you alright?"

She turns her head to him, and it dawns on her; his perfect lunar skin, his midnight blue hair, his intoxicating green eyes that are fixated on her. She almost hits herself at the realization, almost groans outwardly in despair.

He is perfect, too.

They all are.

She quickly becomes confused again, climbing out his bed, clad only in her night clothes as she pads out to the hallway, roaming them for as long as she can. She scratches her head, thinking of him, of all of them, and she doesn't understand.

Why would glass as perfect as him, pair himself with glass as broken as her?

.

.

.

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She doesn't have the courage; not one drop of it.

She has no courage as she sits and waits; waits to be introduced as the Queen of Orb, waits to be depicted as everything she is not and will never be, waits to be thrown into the chaos and confusion whilst being forced to clear it all.

Cagalli feels she does not have the strength, and she fumbles with her pale green gown, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Athrun sits beside her, eyes fixated on her as he watches her squirm, completely oblivious to his gaze, completely oblivious to all that she is.

To all that he loved.

She runs her fingers along the scar on her upper arm, grimacing. This is not how the skin of a Queen should be; Queen's should be perfected and unbreakable and wreak of strength and leadership and certainty. And with every second she sits here, she realizes how wrong this is, how much she should not be here, how much she is risking-

"You can do this," he states, and when she snaps to him, he is not looking at her. "Nobody can lead them like you."

She blinks, dumbfounded, opens her mouth to say something, but closes it when only silences follows. He does not look at her, but she looks at him; his words not being completely registered, his features far too perfect under her gaze.

However, she finds her strength; she did not get it, she _found_ it.

But before she can offer her imperfect smile and thank him, she is whisked away, only able to glance at him for one more second.

His smile is far too handsome and charming; his voice far too affectionate.

"And...you look really beautiful." he says quietly.

She is too surprised to smile, but she doesn't have time to anyway, as she is crowned the Chief Representative of the neutral nation of Orb. She smiles, and it is genuine; a little crocked and imperfect, but genuine. It softens at the thought of him.

She decides she doesn't mind being broken glass; at least, not when she's with him.

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Review...? :)

- Yin


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